The IRFU have been forced to release a statement this morning asking rugby correspondent for The Sunday Times Stephen Jones to withdraw “scurrilous and untrue” claims that the organisation had opposed the idea of today’s match between Japan and Scotland being rearranged.
The game was given the green light in the early hours after tournament organisers deemed the game as safe to go ahead. The game had been in doubt due to Typhoon Hagibis.
Writing in The Sunday Times, Jones suggested that both the IRFU and the New Zealand rugby union were “vehemently opposed to any rearrangement” of the game.
The cancellation of the game would have seen Japan top the group with Scotland eliminated.
The IRFU this morning denied the allegations made by Jones in a written statement, presented in full below:
“The statement by Stephen Jones in today’s edition of The Sunday Times (October 14, 2019) referring to The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) being ‘vehemently opposed’ to any rearrangement of the Scotland V Japan Rugby World Cup fixture is completely false and the inference within the article that the IRFU made representations to World Rugby on the matter is totally without foundation.
“The Irish Rugby Football Union calls on Stephen Jones to immediately withdraw this scurrilous and untrue allegation.”